Chapter Three
Looking for Natsu
~Alvarez Palace~~~
"...Natsu-san is… gone?" a spiky light, blonde haired man whispered as he held boxes filled with papers in the royal hall of the palace.
"Yes…" Invel replied, as he stared nonchalantly at Larcade's blank face.
Larcade immediately dropped the boxes to the floor, spilling all the papers everywhere.
"Who... Who 'kidnapped' him?" Larcade face was still frozen from shock.
"We don't know yet," Invel glanced at the papers on the quartz tile floor.
"I have to go!" Larcade muttered as he started to turn around and run to pack his stuff but Invel stopped him.
"And where do you think you're going?" Invel gritted his teeth as he tried to slightly freeze Larcades joints so the boy couldn't run away at the speed of light.
"I'm going to find Natsu. Do you know what hell would be unleashed if Father found out that Natsu left?" Larcade exclaimed as he struggled to get away from Invel's magic.
"No, you are staying here. The other Shields are enough to find him," Invel sighed as he adjusted his glasses.
"Let me go!"
"No, you have responsibilities!"
"Don't talk to me like I'm the prince!"
"You technically are one too!"
As the Winter General and the White Dragneel were arguing in calm voices, Neinhart and Bradman were standing a few feet away in the hall, sweat-dropping.
"Aren't thee did suppose to beest with the oth'r group searching f'r the prince?" Bradman asked Neinhart.
"Apparently I was taking too long to put on my armor so they left without me…" Neinhart sighed.
"I toldeth thee yond thee shouldst has't did get diff'rent armeth'r. How about next timeth i wend to the apparel and armeth'r shopeth with thee."
The two nodded, as they continued to watch the other two bicker.
It was odd, how the two seemingly calmest people of the Spriggans were in a fight.
"Want to get popcorn?" Neinhart asked.
(Translations for Bradman's Speech all the way down in Author's note) :)
~Fiore The Capital ~~~
"Natsuuuuuuuuu! Natsu!" Happy called out as he flew around the air of Crocus. It had been an hour since he last saw his best friend so Happy finally got worried. Since this was a new country, Natsu could've gotten lost, or arrested, or… WHAT IF HE WAS EATING FISH WITHOUT ME! Happy screamed internally.
He then spotted two other Exceeds and decided to ask them if they saw Natsu. Happy smiled, there were so many Exceeds on this other continent.
"HEY!" Happy yelled out to the Exceeds and landed right next to them on the ground. One of them was a female cat and hat snow white fur, and the other looked like a black panther. When his eyes landed on the female cat, Happy knew… it was love at first sight.
The two Exceeds looked at Happy awkwardly as Happy was rummaging through his green backpack, looking for a fish. Happy finally grabbed a hold of his last fish in his bag and knelt down before the cat. He looked up to her with sparkling eyes.
"Would you… care to have this fish?" Happy drooled a bit in awe.
The panther-like Exceed sweat-dropped and turned to the female cat. "Do you know him?"
The female cat shook her head. She then looked at Happy. "Who are you?"
"I'm Happy!" Happy yelled in joy.
"I asked for a name, not your feelings!" the cat grabbed the fish and slapped Happy with it.
"My name is Happy!" Happy smiled as he got slapped in the face with a fish. He either seemed like he was in dreamland, or was a masochist. Happy quickly recovered and stared at the cat in a dream-like state.
The female cat couldn't look any more weirded out.
Happy finally snapped out of his lovey dovey senses when a blue haired girl approached them.
"Oh, Carla, what new friend have you made?" the girl with blue twintails wondered.
"Wendy… Meet Happy, he's not my friend…" Carla sweat-dropped as she was trying to figure out how to deal with this male cat.
"Lily!" A black haired, tanned man, from behind Wendy, shouted "There you are!"
The black panther Exceed, Lily, smiled at the man. "Gajeel! We've just been watching the fight in the colosseum. Apparently Blue Pegasus is battling Lamia Scale. They made a bet that whoever wins gets or keeps third place prize."
"What? They didn't even invite me?" Gajeel exclaimed.
"You're not even part of their guilds. Plus the fight's ending soon because the Celebration's going to start soon," Carla sighed.
Happy's ears twitched up when heard 'Celebration'... He forgot about Natsu! He immediately asked them, "Have any of you seen my friend? He has pink spiky hair!"
Wendy and Gajeel looked at each other in confusion.
"No, we haven't seen your friend," Wendy said.
Gajeel grinned as he pummeled his fists together. "Is this friend of yours strong?"
"He's very strong! But I can't find him…" Happy's eyes started to water as he thought, Who's going to buy me fish to give to Carla?
Wendy looked at Happy with sympathetic eyes. "Don't worry, we'll help you find him."
At that, Happy's eyes immediately dried and he faced Carla. "Would you like another fish?" Happy said, trying to sound all slick and cool.
Carla just responded with a sigh, "We might not make it to the banquet if we do this…"
"That's fine. What matters most is that we get him to find his friend," Wendy smiled.
"Oh f, I have to perform at the Celebration and show everyone my amazing singing!" Gajeel smirked and ran off, earning a sweat-drop from Lily, who decided to follow his dragon-slayer friend.
~Fiore Crocus~~~
His stomach was throbbing really hard after the prince of Alvarez had punched him so hard. Good thing he didn't eat any dinner or else he would be throwing up everywhere.
Mest walked in the streets of Crocus, thinking up a plan to find and get the prince to Alvarez. Suddenly, a familiar Head Captain of Custody Enforcement Unit appeared before him.
"Lahar!" Mest gasped in surprise. He sweated, wondering if the council already knew his failure at Alvarez.
"Duran-*cough* Mest? What brings you here? I thought you were in Alakitasia for a mission?"
"Oh that?" Mest smiled nervously and scratched his head. "I was visiting here for the Grand Magic Games, then I missed the ship that goes to Alakitasia."
"Oh is that so? I thought you had teleportation magic though…"
"I prefer to ride on the fancy cruises when I cross the sea to another continent…" Mest sweated even more.
"Aren't you broke?"
Mest started to fake laugh really horribly. "I saved up enough coupons to get a free trip!"
"But it doesn't work like that…" Lahar, noticing how weird Mest was acting, decided to let it go. Perhaps because the Mest's mission was so top secret that Mest couldn't reveal anything. "Okay… then, good luck."
Lahar patted Mest's back and left.
Mest closed his eyes deeply sighed in relief. He opened his eyes to see a blur of a familiar blue color. He rubbed his eyes to find the prince's blue cat. There was hope! Maybe he could really return the prince back to his kingdom without a war starting. He wore a deep grin as he started to slowly approach the blue cat.
~Fiore Crocus~~~
As Wendy, Carla, and Happy continued the search of Happy's friend, Happy suddenly felt a hand grab him from around the stomach. Happy screamed as he saw who grabbed him. It was a man, with a scar on his face, with evil looking eyes and evil looking everything. It was an evil man— at least, according to Happy.
"Hehehe… Found you!" the man hummed, or as Happy would say 'he hummed an evil hum'.
"Mest, what are you doing?" Wendy questioned as she saw him squeezing Happy with his hand.
"Oh, uh, Wendy, um…" Mest quickly started petting Happy on the head. "I just got the urge to pet him because he's just so soft *pets Happy in a way uncomfortable with Happy*"
Wendy and Carla looked at Mest with a weird look, but decided it was normal since they did witness him eat flowers before.
"Can I keep him?" Mest asked, as if he was a child.
Wendy sweat-dropped."No, we're currently looking for his friend…"
"I can go look for his friend for you! Don't you have a Celebration to attend to anyway?"
Happy was about to argue but Mest covered his mouth.
Carla crossed her arms and agreed with Mest. Wendy was uncertain, as she really wanted to help the blue Exceed, but Carla's stare was convincing her to go to the Celebration.
Wendy lowered her head in defeat. "Fine, I'll go to the Celebration. Mest, I hope you bring him to his friend."
Mest nodded with determination, "I will!"
As soon as Wendy and Carla were out of range- normal and dragonslayer hearing range, Mest turned to Happy and glared at him. "Now time to find the prince and return you both to Alvarez…"